Apparatus for printing music



March 12, 193 5. NEWBAKER 1,994,046

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MUSIC Filed Dec. 27, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 fnvezzzfar ZwnJ/Z. flewia/kr March 12 1935. L. M. NEWBAKER 1,994,046

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MUSIC Filed De c. 27, 1929 v I 4 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Even???" ZwnJZflzwz/iar Patented Mar. 12 1935 UNITED: sTA-TEs PATENT oF IcE 'My invention relates to new and useful im-' provements inan apparatus for printing music, which Iter'm a scriptograph; and has for its object to providefor the proper positioning and aligning of ruled paperupon a platen and the guiding of properly mounted musical characters to make the impressions of said characters upon the paper step bycstep at the proper elevation relative to the ruling or staves upon said paper.

A further object of my invention isto provide a'traveling reach bar and mechanism for moving' said reach bar up and down-relative to'the music sheet and also to providemultiple'bases 'slidably suppo'rtedby said 'reach' bar so as to determine the position of each character upon the staves;

A further object of theinvention is to "provide a series of mountings each of which has a musicalcharacter so'placed thereon that the impres sion therefrom will bedetermined by the mountmgfi, v

With these and other'end's in view, this invention consists-in the details of construction as herein' shown and then 'specificallydesigna'ted by the claims. Q

' In-or'der that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertainsmay understand how tomakeand use the same, I will describe its Fig. 3 is a section at theline' 3 -3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section of the guide base "head, on line 4-4 of Fig.1 with the swinging leaf which forms the Base B swing back or inward. i

Fig. 5 is a diagram'showinga musical staff and two characters properly mounted and posi ti'o'nedto transfer the impression of the characters thereo'nto the staff. 1 Fig. 6 is a detail view of one of the with musical characters thereon.

Fig. is a view'similar-to Fig; 6 of a mounting.

. Fig. 8 is a side view'of Figz'fi. V l a Fig. 9 is a perspective view Of-the head block and the componentparts thereof with the cross bar broken off.

In carrying out my invention as herein embodied, 10 represents the base or. platen ofthe apparatus, preferably rectangular in shapeand of .such' dimensions as to. support the operating mountings larger Ba se Af, its relation to the operation of the parts and provide forthe placing .of anordinary sheet of ruled paper such as is used ,for'printing music. ,;While this base may have its upper sure facegfinished in any suitable :manner,'I prefer to cover this'upper surface wit-ha layer 11 of 5 such. material as will give proper; friction'for holding a sheet of music in' place such as rubber.

12. andk13 represent two side bars secured to the base by the feet-14 having the screws 15 passing through suitableholes in said feet and 17 represents two racksformed with or secured to the side bars, each of said side bars having a longitudinal channel 18 ,formed therein and in these channels, the endsof the cross bar 19 are fitted to slide.- This crossbar has depending downard therefrom .bearing hangers 20 in which hangers are journalled the shafti21. 22 representstwo pinions 'secured'upon'the shaft 21" and meshing with the racks so that when the shaft is turned, the,pinions will travel in unison along the rack bars carrying therewith thecross bar 19, keeping said bar in perfect alignment as will be readily understood;- and for convenience in revolving the shaft 21 the thumb knob '23 is secured upon one end of said shaft.

1 24 represents a head block which is fitted upon the cross bar 19 and adapted to slide longitudi- "na lly of said bar and held against accidental displacement by aclutch plate 25 bearing against the forward edge of said bar by the action of the spring 26 mounted in the head. The clutch plate is held on the-head block by screws 27 passing through slots and can be actuated by the finger piece 28. This providesfor the quick movement of thehead block to-and-fr'o upon the cross bar and for holding said block against accidental displacement inany position it may beset.

Formedwith or -'secured to the head block is a guide plate 29 which stands atri'ght angles tothe forward surface of the block, thus forming a guide for holders upon which are mounted characters for printing 'music and this forward surface of the head block, I designated as apparatus being hereinafter more fully de- 5 scribed. x

To; the guide plate 29 is pivoted as at'30 a v swinging'leaf 31 which I designate as BaseB,

the-relation of which to the operations ofthe apparatus will also be hereinafter more fully described. 1

' The heelof the leaf 31 contacts with the plate spring 32, the latter being secured as at 33 to the guide plate so that this leaf may be turned .in in order that its working surface may be 5 pointer 43. Thecross bar 19 has upon the upper surface brought flush with the working surface of the guide plate, the spring serving to lock the leaf in either its distended position by pressure against the heel of the leaf as shown in Fig. 1 or in its turned-in position by bearing against the flat surface of the leaf after the well known manner of a pen knife blade and spring.

34 represents a spring clip secured to the base in such manner as to readily clamp a sheet of paper upon said base, said paper having music staves 35 lined thereon and 36 is an auxiliary spring clip also secured to the base and having its rear end extending into close proximity to the cut-away turn button 36', whereby thefront jaw thereof may be held open by the turn button being turned over the rear end of this clip, thus holding said end in a depressed position.

The object of this is to facilitate the positioning of the paper to be printed upon the base which is accomplished by holding the auxiliary clip 36 out of action as just described, inserting the paper beneath the clip 34 and then swinging the paper as of a center, represented by the hold of the clip 34 thereon until it has been properly aligned and then releasing the auxiliary clip 36 so that it may take hold upon said paper thereby firmly holdingthe latter against any displace, ment during the operation of printing thereon.

These clips may 'be of any desirable construction and therefore I have not shown any detail of construction thereon.

37 represents pointers telescoping into. the tubes 38 and held in any position therein by the screws 39, said tubes being pivoted as at 40 to the base so that the pointers may be swung out of action or into action, the latter position being shown inFig. 1.

When these pointers have been properly adjusted in their tubes, they serve to indicate the proper position of the. paper upon the base, which position is indicated by the contact of the ends of the pointers with certain of the lines,

preferably the top line of they top staff of the,

paper ruling.

From the foregoing description, it will beseen that the cross bar may be moved up or down upon. the side bars by the proper revolving of the shaft 21, thus bringing the guide plate and the bases A and B into proper relation with the staves ruled upon the paper which proper relation will be indicated by the pointer 41 carried by the guide plate 29 and this position will be determined upon the scale 42 by the pointer 43 carried by said cross bar, the plate upon which said scale is inscribed being either formed with or secured to the side bar 12. I

The scale 42 is provided with a number of main graduations and intermediate graduations and is further divided into groups of graduations 44 indicated by longer lines or by the coloring of certain lines of the graduations and :these groups of graduations correspond to the staves and groups of staves upon the ruled paper so that the operator of the apparatus may readily determine by casual observation which line of a particular stafi is being indicated by the thereof inscribed the scale 45 of relativelyfine graduations and also has inscribed thereon the scale 46 of coarser graduations, which are arbitrary and represent the spacing of musical characters, and the head block has an opening 4'7 7 therein through which these scales appear as the block is slid back and forth upon the bar and projecting into this opening is a pointer 48 which registers with the finer scale and also a pointer 49 which registers with the coarser scale, thus enabling the operator to readily and accurately determine the position of the head block which determines the position right and left in which the characters will be printed upon the staves of the ruled paper.

The musical characters utilized for accomplishing the printing of music upon the staves of properly ruled paper are mounted upon the holders50, 50A and these holders as shown in Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are of different widths, each however, being of equal length and usually of the same thickness and are adapted to be guided by the guide plate 29 and the base A or the base B and the characters mounted upon said holders are so positioned thereon as to bring each of them into proper position upon one of the staves ruled upon the paper when properly positioned by the guide plate and either base A or base B, as for instance, .notes having long stems being mounted upon the wide holders while the notes having the short stems being mounted upon the narrow holders, the wide holders are guided by the guide plate and thebase A while the narrow holders are guided by the guide plate and base B, thus permitting the printing of a great variety of characters from a less number of holders without the loss of time and annoyance necessary to move the cross bar through greater distances for changing the positions of the characters upon the-paper.

When a short stem note is to be printed, the leaf 31 is swung out to the position shown in Fig. 1 and used as base B and the cross bar moved until the pointer 41 indicates the line or the space upon or in which the head of the character is to be printed when the operator simply picks up the holder with the proper character thereon and slides it downward, keeping one face and one edge in contact with the guide plate and base B, which will print the character in accurate position upon the staff. The same result will be had when the wide holders are used bysimply closing in the leaf 31, thus permitting the use of base A for the position of the holder relative to the staff being printed upon. v

It is to be understood that v where notes are to be printed with the stems turned upward, the holders carrying such characters are turned in the proper position and when the stems are to extend downward, said holders are reversed.

It is also to be understood that the pointer 41 may be made adjustable upon the head block by being pivoted thereto so as to be slightly raised or lowered to accommodate different thicknesses of paper to be printed upon. In practice, the various characters used in music, such as clefs, rests, bars, figures indicating time and the like, letters indicating fingering, silent measures, numbering of the pages and the like, as well as notes, may be readily printed in proper positions, as before described, thus providing for the use of all characters used in printing music.

Of course I do not wish to be limited to the exact details of construction as herein shown, as these may be varied within the limits of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus' fully described my invention, what I claim as new and useful is:.

. 1. In anapparatus for printing music, a platen on which a sheet of paper is to be mounted, said sheet of paper having musical staves delineated thereon, means for holding said paper on the platen, a head block, means for moving said head block crosswise and lengthwise of the 'platen to vary the position of said head block relative to the musical staves, a fixed base carried by said head block, and a swinging base also carried by said head block, said basesbeing selectively usable for guiding holders carrying musical characters so as to properly position said characters upon the staves.

2. In an'apparatus for printing music step by step, a platen to receive a paper having musical staves delineated thereon, a movable headblock means to move said head block transversely and longitudinally over said platen, a fixed base carried by said head block, and a swinging base also carried by said head block, said bases being selectively used according to the musical characters to be printed.

3. The structure set forth in claim 2, in combination with means to indicate the position of the head block and therefore the bases relative to the paper on the platen longitudinally of the latter, and means to indicate the position of said head block and said bases relative to the paper on the platen transversely of said platen.

4. In an apparatus for printing music, the

combination of a platen, a movable head block, means to move said headv block over said platen both longitudinally and transversely thereof, a fixed base carried by said head block for guiding holders carrying printing characters, and a pivoted base for selective positioning in front of the fixed base and to one side thereof, said pivoted base being used for guiding holders carrying printing characters when said pivoted base is swung to the position in front of the fixed base.

5. An apparatusior printing music, comprising a platen, means for positioning and holding a sheet of paper upon said platen, said paper having musical staves delineated thereon, a head block, means to support said head block for longitudinal and transverse movement over said platen, a fixed base carried by said head block, a swinging base also carried by said head block, said bases being selectively usable for guiding holders carrying musical characters whereby said characters may be properly positioned relative to the musical staves, and mechanical means for moving the head block and its component parts longitudinally of the platen. I

6. The structure set forth in claim 5, in combination with mechanical means for guiding said block in any position transversely of the platen.

LEON M. NEWBAKER. 

